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THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 



SUNSET VARIEGATED PELARGONIUM. 



WITH AN ILLUSTRATION. 



Those who have watched the gradual improvement which has taken place 

 in the varieties of the Variegated Pelargonium, both in respect to their flowers 

 arid their foliage, and have noticed in what the improvements brought about 

 in respect to the latter have consisted, will not be surprised to find that at length 

 there has been obtained a well-marked Golden Tricolor-leaved section — a 

 group which we think those who glance at the accompanying figure will at 

 once admit already affords us an acquisition of extreme beauty ; such, indeed, 

 as may be expected to win a high position in popular favour. Such a position 

 we doubt not will at once be accorded to the new variety called Sunset, which 

 Mr. Pitch has so admirably pourtrayed, and which we have the pleasure of 

 presenting to our readers, as an earnest of the efforts we are prepared to make 

 to win for ourselves a similar position. Por some time past there has been 

 known in cultivation a group of varieties, of which Countess of Warwick and 

 Fontainbleau were some of the earlier types, in which combined with a white 

 or creamy marginal variegation, the leaves are marked by a zone of rose- 

 crimson or flame-red, more or less intense. The varieties of this group, which 

 we may call the Silver Tricolor-leaved, have been now very much improved, 

 and at the present time we have in such kinds as the Queen's Favourite, the 

 Rainboiv and Picturatum, plants of very great beauty, possessing well-marked 

 features of excellence both in their leaves and blossoms. 



The Golden Tricolor-leaved group now illustrated has also made a decided 

 and very rapid advance in quality. Some of the earlier forms themselves are 

 yet by no means common, such as Golden Tom Thumb, Golden Cerise Unique, 

 and Golden Vase, though they have the red zone sufficiently well marked on 

 their younger leaves to render them attractive objects in the garden, and yet 

 greatly inferior to the more recent Mrs. Pollock, as that is again surpassed in 

 brilliancy by the present novelty. These two latter, however, Sunset and Mrs. 

 Pollock, are of nearly equal merit, the markings being similar in character in 

 both, but the zone being rather lighter and brighter coloured in the one we 

 now figure. We owe the opportunity of introducing it to our readers to the 

 Messrs. E. G. Henderson & Son, of the Wellington Road Nursery, St. John's 

 Wood, and we believe it is entirely in their hands. We saw it growing with 

 them in the autumn of 1861, both in the open air and in cold airy frames, and can 

 testify that the rich colouring of our figure by no means exaggerates the beauty 

 of the plant which is of course prized mainly for its brilliant leaves. Though 

 this tricoloured race of Pelargoniums has been spoken against as not suited for 

 out-door cultivation, and as losing the brilliancy of the markings as the leaves 

 get matured in size — objections which may apply to some few of the more 

 delicate silver-edged sorts — we can state from our own observation respecting 

 Sunset and Mrs. Pollock, which was growing beside it, that in both the situations 

 referred to above, where of course the plants were exposed to free light and 

 air, the bright colouring of the leaves was not evanescent. Indeed, from the 

 healthy and comparatively free growth of the plants, and their branching- 

 habit, a constant development of foliage is going on, so that they have always 

 an ample garnature of the highly- coloured leaves — ample to justify us in 

 strongly recommending them for all decorative uses, either in the flower garden 

 or in the greenhouse. These golden-edged sorts have a much more healthy- 

 looking appearance and habit than most of the silver-edged varieties. 



Reverting to the immediate subject before us, our memorandum made last 

 September ran thus : — Habit free, vigorous, dwarfish. Leaves nearly three 

 inches across, rather undulated, but not cupped, smooth and rather glossy, 



